This blog was created by the Purdue Beef Team as an educational forum for beef producers and Extension educators. It includes timely news, issues, and management tips that have the potential to affect the beef business and decision-making process. Opinions expressed in the news clips do not necessarily represent those of Purdue University or the beef industry.

Entering the summer months, cattlemen need to understand and deal with heat and humidity. We need to consider some guidelines to help us reduce additional stress on cattle during these events and incorporate some of the following practices into our management practices.

Like this:

“Weaning begins the day the calf is born,” says Tom Noffsinger, cattle handling consultant from Binkleman, Neb. “How you handle that momma cow is going to have an effect on that calf, and how you handle that calf from day one is going to help determine how that calf reacts to weaning.”

"Whenever I’m in a pasture with cattle, it is not unusual to find the (mineral) feeder empty, and it may look like it had been empty for several days. Fortunately, minerals do not require a daily intake as the cattle’s body can help tide them through most shortages," says Eldon Cole, livestock specialist, University of Missouri Extension.

Slaughter is an issue as personal as it is philosophic as it is systematic. And it’s at this confluence that autistic animal welfare advocate Temple Grandin arrived to standardize humane slaughter practices in the United States.